It's taken Car2Go some time to figure that out, too. While German
company Daimler runs its car-sharing program in 25 North American and
European cities, none of them have quite the same combination of climate
and plowing procedure that Minneapolis does. So when Car2Go expanded here
in September, it had to create its own policy.

"The first snow
emergency was just kind of a free for all," admits Josh Johnson, Car2Go
Minneapolis's location manager. "So it's been a learning curve, but now
we've come up with a pretty good system."

Car2Go has had to.
Since that first snow emergency on December 4, Minneapolis has declared
three more, one on December 25, one January 14, and one January 18. For the car-sharing
program, the announcements have meant a three-pronged call to action.

Prong
one: Get the customer to help. During the first snow emergency, Car2Go
realized that it could enlist its members to help move cars, and
instituted a trade policy: 20 free minutes of drive time to any member
who moves a car to safety. Once the member emails Car2Go the
perilously-placed car's plate number, location, date, and time, Car2Go verifies the move and credits the member's account. "We've
seen a pretty good response," Johnson says. "If the customer's actually
helping us, that's an added bonus."

Prong two: Tell members not
to park on snow emergency routes in the first place. Car2Go blasts its
social media accounts during snow emergencies to get the word out, and
reminds members that if a car gets impounded, then the person to use it last is on
the hook for towing and ticketing (though that doesn't apply if the car was parked before the snow emergency was declared). "We've tried to make that clear,"
Johnson says. "You can't necessarily rely on somebody else using that
car before it gets a ticket, and I think people are starting to figure
that out."

Prong three: Car2Go's fleet team. Members help, but
when a snow emergency is called, Car2Go employees hit the streets. Using cars' GPS coordinates, Car2Go puts together lists of
which cars need to be moved, and then sends out the six-to-12 person
fleet team on long hours -- shifts between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. -- to get
the cars in the right place.

Despite these measures, Car2Go has
lost some cars to the impound lot. Johnson declined to give a specific
number, but did say that throughout all of the snow emergencies, 90
percent of the fleet has remained ready to
rent.

"It was something that we expected, especially pioneering
this kind of thing for Car2Go," Johnson says of the snow tows. "But with the amount of
cars we have out there, and people learning how this works, all four of them have been a victory for us."

Soon, Car2Go
will have even more cars to contend with in the snow. At the end of this
month, the company plans to deploy another 85 vehicles, bringing the fleet
up to 349 strong (one more car on its way will round that number up to
350).

Look out for the tiny, blue-and-white rides under the rest of the fluffy white stuff.

I really don't understand how in 2014, people still get their cars towed because they didn't move them during a snow emergency. Oh, wait, I can understand. Despite it being 2014, people are still too lazy to move them, or too stupid to check the proper sources and find out if an Emergency has been declared.

Snow emergencies notwithstanding, Minneapolis has another unique factor as to where you can leave these cars - "restricted meters" They're marked with a red band and they indicate windows of time it is OK, and NOT OK to park there. The literature in the Car2Go vehicles has generic language that says you can leave you car at "any" 2 hour (or more) parking meter in the city limits...which most of these restricted meters are. I've always wondered how many people have left a Car2Go at a restricted meter during the day only to have it towed at 4pm when rush hour starts!

If you are the last one to use the car before it gets towed your checking account that is linked to your membership will get charged. I saw that tidbit on yelp, people were talking about that and I had no idea.